CultureX

I tell
my management students that executives should focus on one task above all others:
developing a positive, supportive corporate culture. When a company has a
positive culture, all things are possible. When a company has a negative culture,
very few positive outcomes occur.

The problem,
of course, is how to assess a culture. How does one know if a culture is
positive or negative? It’s perhaps the most important question an executive (or
job applicant) can ask. But the answer is murky at best. Further, how can one
tell if a culture is getting better or worse? Is the company living up to its
professed values? How does one know?

A new company
called CultureX may help us solve the problem.
Formed in conjunction with MIT’s Sloan School of Management, CultureX uses the millions
of employee reviews on Glassdoor to analyze
corporate cultures. Along the way, CultureX identifies the most frequent values
companies profess, the norms used to promote those values, and how employees
view company performance in fulfilling the values.

CultureX
uses a range of textual analysis tools to analyze free-form employee comments
in Glassdoor reviews. The result is a composite view of what it’s like to work
in an organization – from employees’ perspective. As you might expect, employee
reviews often highlight what the company actually values as opposed to what it
professes to value.

CultureX
initially applied its methodology to analyze 1.2 million Glassdoor reviews for
some 500 companies. The average Culture 500 company has over 2,000 employee reviews.
The analysis identified some 60 “… distinct values that companies listed in their
corporate values statements.” From the 60, CultureX researchers winnowed the list
down to the Big Nine that were cited most frequently. These are: agility,
collaboration, customer, diversity, execution, innovation, integrity, performance,
and respect.

CultureX
researchers then built an interactive tool which “… provides users a snapshot
of how frequently and positively employees … speak about each of the Big Nine
values.” Users can see how employees discuss each of the Big Nine – even those
that a company doesn’t include in its own values statements.

CultureX
uses Amazon as an example of how the tool might be used. Amazon’s employee reviews,
for instance, spoke frequently and positively about two specific values:
innovation and customer centricity. (Innovation was about two standard deviations
above the mean; customer centricity was about one standard deviation above). On
the other hand, employees were “much less enthusiastic” about the company’s
respect for employees – about 1.5 standard deviations below the mean.

How
might one use these data? An Amazon executive might be concerned that employees
don’t feel respected. The executive might develop programs to improve the company’s
performance. (I’m sure that consultants from CultureX would have some suggestions).
The executive could then use changes over time in the “respect” value to
monitor progress (or lack of it). Similarly, an executive might compare her own
company to any number of other companies – in the same industry or in others –
to identify competitive gaps and/or advantages.

But the data are not reserved solely for executives. Want to work for a company that is truly innovative? The CultureX data can help you identify which companies are walking the walk and not just talking the talk. Potential employees can identify companies that match their value set. Companies can identify potential employees whose values match the company’s. With better information, both sides stand to benefit.

CultureX’s
work should help us focus more attention on the role of corporate culture in business
success. The data set could become a useful platform for investors, executives,
employees, and job applicants. So … how’s your company doing?